So I decided to write something like a review. Even though my result isn't record-breaking, it's for the quorum, so to speak :)
Player Name: standard :o
Game Version: 1.2
Difficulty: hard
Character Class: mage
Level upon completion: 56
Stats: 18 attack, 29 defense, 44 intelligence, 53 rage, 123 mana
Score: 1303
Completion Day: 19
Playtime: says 54 hours :eek: (probably because the game spent a long time paused, on the hero screen, or simply in combat)
Real completion time: about 2 months (played mostly on weekends)
Impressions of the playthrough: excellent game, a worthy sequel to The Legend. I was very pleased with many of the innovations: the little dragon, new monsters (royal griffins and paladins are just something else), flight, the contract system, unlimited hero leveling... Overall, well done, what can I say :smile20:
Your game strategy: From the start, I took inquisitors, whom I didn't part with until the end of the game, priests, archers, and whatever else was at hand. At the first opportunity on Debir, I took royal snakes, royal thorns, and evil-eyes (archers and inquisitors remained), and set sail with them. On Bolo, I swapped archers for a cyclops (who helped a lot in battles) and ran around with such an army until Verona. In 3-4 battles at the beginning there were losses (I didn't want to reload), which I deeply regretted, because I only got a level 2 strategist on Bolo and level 3 on Anchor, which meant I had to sail a lot. On Verona, I joyfully beheld royal griffins, evil-eyes, and paladins (cyclops and inquisitors remained, thorns in reserve). On Montero, I swapped cyclops for giants and ran through to the end with such an army, changing only for bosses.
Losses occurred in battles with Gromozeka, the axe, and another 4-5 heroes along the way (minor), Elenhel (more serious), but the bulk was on bosses.
I sailed quite a bit overall; I visited many islands 2-4 times because I didn't know the strength of armies and quests. I lost a couple of days (maybe more) on quests—I wanted to complete as many as possible.
Artifacts: - Ancient Amulet - took it upon returning to Debir and wore it throughout the game, +4 intelligence, +12 mana, +10 magic runes.
- Paladin's Shield - +4 defense, -25% undead attack - also from Debir, wore it until I got the mithril one - +8 defense.
- Wore rage artifacts - sign of wrath, spear, but then took them off.
- Dragonite - methodically collected and assembled on Verona, +3 attack, +2 defense, +1 intelligence, -10 attack to dragons.
- Novice's and Mage's dresses
- Studded boots (sometimes swapped for heat-resistant)
- Two hands of Necropolis - +4 attack and defense, +20% experience
- Rekros' Shield -50% attack to dragons - received on Rehau
- Lightning Axe
- During the game, leadership artifacts - goblin kraculum, nomad helmet, elf crown.
I didn't wear artifact sets (although I assembled the vampire and rage ones).
Battle Tactics: There was no strict standard tactic, but the main techniques were:
- At the start of the game against stompers - troops in a corner, block them with two walls and methodically shoot them down. This is how I wiped out snakes on Debir with a strike force of 2 inquisitors, 5 archers, and priests. A single wall helps a lot if there are obstacles.
- If there is even one corpse and one stack of summoned thorns, a "chain reaction" occurs - thorns raise each other and block the path.
- Stone skin and target on cyclops (giants).
- We slow down and shoot strong enemies; low-level ones we knock back with the little dragon or put to sleep with evil-eyes; runners we tame with a trap, and shooters with a penalty (like skeleton archers) will also be stopped by a trap.
- Heavenly Guard blocks shooters or simply distracts the enemy.
- At the end of the battle, we leave one unit of level 1-2, cast fear, and resurrect as much as we want - fear holds if there is no one to attack. The hero cannot cast spells if all troops are frightened, which is very convenient.
- Helped against dragons (especially undead): griffins encouragement, inquisitors holy wrath on paladins, paladins repeat turn on griffins and they hit; in the end, griffins hit without response, in the 2nd round we finish them with griffins and magic.
- If there are choshis in the enemy army, mana can be restored infinitely, even if it's already the n-th round: leave a few choshis and once every 2 rounds hit summoned gobots - +1 mana. That's how I killed a fat lizard without losses - 180 rounds.
- And the most obvious thing - simply shooting the enemy with strike magic. Fire rain with damage near 4K and 60% burn is quite decent.
Magic: The situation was mostly good. Until I got higher magic (on Anchor), I practically didn't use combat magic (book damage was often 0%), whereas with higher magic, intelligence over 40, and level 3 chaos (I leveled chaos from schools last), damage reached 50%. Key spells: stone skin, target, rage control, slow, fear, trap, phantom, dispel, heal (on giants), time return (infrequently), sacrifice (appreciated its usefulness late), magic shackles, fireball and rain, exorcism. Occasionally used mass haste, mass weakness, mass blessing, and battle cry; didn't really appreciate nature call or phoenix. Geyser - only on Baal; got god armor and resurrection late, barely used the rest.
Little Dragon: Used very actively. Up to about level 35, the little dragon constantly stayed 1-2 levels ahead of the hero, but then started falling behind (by the end, hero was 56, dragon 48). I messed up slightly by taking a yellow one (only gathered enough rage for the egg on Bolo).
At first, crushing blow (up to 50% damage in battles on Debir) and wall (helped a lot), then diving, egg, and blow again (but more for knocking back). Specifically leveled rage control-2 to get frenzy, but it didn't help much. Treasure hunter - a little throughout the game; lava - only against plants; barely used mana accelerator and lightning. At the end of the game (Nameless - Sheterra - Rehau), the little dragon no longer played a key role.
Squires: First Jim Crowd, then Elenhel (+4 intelligence, mana restoration, scrolls)
Skills: Magic: all maxed out except meditation 2 – ran out of runes.
Spirit: reconnaissance, holy wrath, glory, training 3; adrenaline, strength of spirit, absolute balance 2; trophies, prayer 1.
Strength: very weak, which is not surprising for a mage - rage control 2, endurance, heroism, onslaught, caution, night operations 1.
Medals: Trapper 1 (played around at the start), guardian angel 1 (stopped using stone skin from mid-game), blind rage 2 (just barely missed it), fire mage 2 (similarly), others 3.
Enemy Heroes: It was interesting to fight all of them, but some fell without problems in 3-4 rounds, while with others I had to struggle quite a bit. I never saw Armageddon cast by an enemy, but Rudokop, Iron Fist, and Gwendum loved to throw mass haste in the first round (in the end, I always managed to avoid this). Also memorable were cyclops Xerxes from Montero, the mad professor on Tekron, general Sargatas from Sheterra, the first lizard before Ktau (the second was much easier), and Elenhel, the companion...
Bosses: I killed the first three very late - spider 39, frog 40, driller 51 - so they presented no difficulties, zero losses.
Gremlion (level 52) - didn't expect it to be one of the hardest battles. Attempts to kill with my own army were unsuccessful, so I took KD, CD, ID, trolls from a scroll + ogre club, and kept paladins. In the end, losses: 2 CD, most of the trolls, some paladins, and others.
Ktau (level 55) turned out to be easier than Gremlion. The dagger (increased damage by both troops and magic), boosting scrolls, hits to the weak spot, and the fact that the lizard constantly hid and summoned little played a role. Army: KD, CD, bone ones from scroll, royal griffins (morale was nonexistent, but there was nothing else to take), paladins. Losses: half of CD, KD, and bones, most of the griffins.
Baal (level 55) - truly the hardest battle. Took inquisitors, paladins, knights, cavalry, griffins. Won with phantom paladins (ended up with 1.5 thousand of them), and the inquisitors held up surprisingly well. Losses - everything except paladins and half the knights.
Quests and Texts: I liked them, read almost all of them. I was pleased with the cool quests that continue the traditions of The Legend - lever gears, the "soapy" quest on Tekron, the Zhe-Lo-Pi meteorite...
By the way, how many tasks are there in total in the game? I have 84; I tried to take all and didn't fail any. I fundamentally skipped one quest—didn't want to sail from Nameless to Scarlet Wind.
Your interests, hobbies: music, reading, the whole HoMM series, and King's Bounty, obviously :)
Screens

Hero before the finale (boosting scrolls are visible :))